Eastern Railroad Discussion > It ain't protoype? Two units - same number...

Interesting photo? I understand the two new EMD CSX units are in this area with GEXR for thirty days of testing between Stratford and Toronto Ontario. Units are constructed in London Onatrio - forty miles south of here...bjd.

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One is LLPX 2210, the other is RLK 2210 -- this happens sometimes, though catching it on film is rare. If two units like this get assigned to DIFFERENT trains in the same area, it requires extra caution by the crews, dispatchers, and any maintenance people who might be around. A few years back, I photographed Conrail 6521 and NS 6521 on consecutive eastbound trains on the same piece of railroad. It could have been confusing had this been track-warrant territory, but it wasn't. And for a while during the late 1980s, when CSX was renumbering its former Chessie units into the Seaboard scheme, it had some duplicate numbers running around.

I've run into the same basic thing from time to time. One that pops into memory quickly was a few months ago on CP's former SOO C&M sub north of Chicago. I caught an eastbound led by CP 6021 (a SD40-2) and the following train, about an hour later, had SOO SD60 6021 as the leader. This is an instance of two locos with the same number being owned and operated by the same company.

Now if CP had followed the others, they would have patched the SOO 6021 to 'eliminate confusion'n upon CP's takeover. Isn't that why UP, BNSF, NS and the others decided to bastardize their fleets with patching and renumbering and make them look like 200 pounds of monkey crap in a 2 pound bag? To eliminate 'confusion'? CP seems to do just fine with SOO and CP units in the same number series.

Just my two cents,
Don Kalkman

Mastadon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Now if CP had followed the others, they would have
> patched the SOO 6021 to 'eliminate confusion'n
> upon CP's takeover. Isn't that why UP, BNSF, NS
> and the others decided to bastardize their fleets
> with patching and renumbering and make them look
> like 200 pounds of monkey crap in a 2 pound bag?
> To eliminate 'confusion'? CP seems to do just fine
> with SOO and CP units in the same number series.
>
> Just my two cents,
> Don Kalkman


One additional thought regarding these units: while a few other members of the Soo fleet were repainted into CP livery with Soo reporting marks, not a single Soo Line SD60 has received this treatment -- almost certainly to prevent the sort of confusion you describe.

CP does seem to be unique in this regard (along with being distinctively slow to repaint ANYTHING). Just a few years ago, CN renumbered a bunch of Grand Trunk Western GP38s into the by-then vacant 4900 series to free up the 5700s for SD75I's, even though the new locomotives' reporting marks would have been CN, not GTW.

I've been hoping to catch a Soo and CP with the same number on the
same train, but so far haven't been able to. I've seen two different
trains in the same day with the same locomotive number (different
reporting marks of course), like CP 9573 on one train and BN 9573 on
the next one. I think it was Aug 1987 Trains, that had a photo of a
CSX train with CSX 6643 and Seaboard System 6643. (I think that was the
number). The former was a C&O GP40 renumbered/repainted, and the latter
was a Seaboard System GP40-2 not yet renumbered into the 6300's.

A few years back, a good friend of mine was a manager at UP's diesel shop in Proviso, IL. Not two, but THREE units with the same number wound up on premise at the same time. One with UP reporting marks, one SP, and one CNW. He "conveniently" assigned just those three units to the same outbound train. No idea if any photographers caught it or not.

Randy

Way back in the days of Northwest Railfan, then editor Ferris (yes it is his day off...) was camping up in BC and caught two trains, a CN and CP next to each other with both lead units numbered the same - one an SD-40-2 and the other a GP-38-2. Great night shot, it's where the two roads begin directional running down the Thompson/ Fraser canyons IIRC.


TCS - wishin' I were there now.

TCS wrote :"Wishin' I were there now ..."

Amen to that. There's just something about B.C. !